Jakarta, Aug 18 (Antara) - The evacuation of the bodies of victims of the Trigana airplane, which crashed on Sunday in Oksob, Bintang Pegunungan District, Papua, has been postponed to Wednesday due to bad weather.
"For the time being, I have stopped the evacuation operations because the visibility is pegged at only two to three meters. We will continue it tomorrow at 5 a.m. Eastern Indonesia Time (WIT)," Col. Sugiono, Chief of the 172/Pra Wira Yakti (PWY) District Military Command, said on Tuesday evening.
According to a source in Oksibil, the district capital of Pegunungan Bintang, darkness at the location due to bad weather had resulted in the delay and forced the Airfast helicopter to return from the location to Oksibil.
Col. Sugiono said the search for the victims involved 189 personnel plus about 250 local residents.
"So the total number of personnel involved in the rescue effort has reached 189 in addition to hundreds of locals," Sugiono said.
On Tuesday, rescue workers had found the bodies of all 54 victims of Trigana Air Flight No. 257, which had crashed in Oksob.
"According to the latest information received until 12:30 a.m. WIT, the number of bodies discovered has reached 54," the Public Communication Chief Officer at the Ministry of Transportation, J.A. Barata, noted on Tuesday.
"The bodies were still at the crash location. They have not been moved yet," he stated.
Sugiono said the bodies of the 54 victims had all been placed in body bags not far from a helipad from where they would be transported to Oksibil.
"All the bodies have been put into bags and are now being guarded by personnel. They have been placed close to the helipad, at a distance of some three to four meters," the 172/PWY District Military Command Chief said.
Indonesia's Ministry of Transportation said the ill-fated ATR aircraft, bearing Flight No. 257, had lost contact on Sunday at 2:55 p.m. local time, during its flight from Jayapura to Oksibil.
The aircraft, with 49 passengers and five crew members, including Pilot Hasanudin and co-pilot Aryadi, was due to arrive in Oksibil at 3:15 p.m. WIT after a 55-minute flight, but had failed to make its scheduled landing.
Efforts to evacuate the 54 people onboard the Trigana Airways aircraft were hampered by the extreme weather on Monday and Tuesday, the Chief of the Pegunungan Bintang district police, Adjunct Senior Commissioner Yunus Wally, added.
In the meantime, the Head of the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) Bambang Soelistyo said the evacuation would be carried out after bad weather conditions subsided.
"We hope the weather will improve soon and that we can continue with the evacuation process. The bodies had been put into body bags and were now ready to be evacuated from Oksob's mountainous areas to Oksibil," Bambang Soelistyo said.
He added that the evacuation will be carried out using the netting and hoisting method.
"The evacuation will be carried out tomorrow using the netting and hoisting method, which I think will be the most effective," he said at a press conference held at the Sentani air base.
Flanked by Transport Minister Ignasius Jonan, Papua regional police Chief Brigadier General Paulus Waterpauw, Papua regional military Commander Major General Fransen G. Siahaan and air base Commander Col. Made Susila and other regional officials, Sulistyo said he hoped that the evacuation would be completed quickly using the method.
"We plan to conduct the evacuation tomorrow, certainly if the weather is good, by helicopter. Later, when the bodies of the victims arrive at Oksibil, we will decide whether we will transport some or all of the bodies to Jayapura," he stated.
Sulistyo hoped that the second alternative would be opted for. However, he added that it would also depend upon negotiations between the search teams and the victims' families.
In the meantime, Transportation Minister Ignasius Jonan urged the National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT) to report within a month's time the findings of its preliminary investigation into the Trigana aircraft crash, which had resulted in 54 deaths.
"The commission must complete its preliminary report regarding its investigation into the crash within a month," he said in a press statement made available to Antara on Tuesday.
Jonan stated that the names of those aboard the ill-fated Trigana Air ATR aircraft should be the same as those available on the passenger manifest.
KNKT Chief Tatang Kurniadi affirmed that no foreign nationals were onboard the aircraft, which had crashed on Sunday.
"All people aboard the aircraft were Indonesians. Therefore, we do not need to report the results of our investigation to other countries," he pointed out.
In addition to discovering the bodies of all passengers and crew members on the ill-fated plane, rescuers had also found the black box.
"The black box was found at 1:40 p.m. local time," the Ministry's spokesperson, J.A. Barata, stated.
The black box is now being transported by Basarnas and will be submitted immediately for investigation to the KNKT.
The agency's chief, Henry Bambang Soelistyo, remarked that the aircraft's debris had been found in Bintang Mountain, or about seven nautical miles from Oksibil airport.
The exact location of black box was 4 degrees 49 minutes 289 seconds south, 140 degrees 29 minutes 953 seconds east.
"The ground team spent last night at an altitude of one thousand meters (one kilometer) and it took them at least an hour to reach the crash site. Yesterday's delivered coordinates were convincing and 100 percent true," Bambang emphasized.
Transportation Minister Ignatius Jonan also appreciated the joint rescue team for its performance. "This is a compact and effective joint team as it was able to do the needful in less than 48 hours," he said in Jayapura, Papua¿s provincial capital.
He pointed out that when an Air Asia flight had met with an accident sometime back, the evacuation work had taken a relatively longer time.
"The government thanks the joint team, the Military, Police and all parties who have taken part in the operation," the minister said. ***4***(T.A014/INE/B003)EDITED BY INE
(T.A014/A/BESSR/Bustanuddin) 18-08-2015 22:56:5 |
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